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The skippers of the Barcelona World Race are involved by European oceanographers to deploy off the Argo continuously measuring temperature and salinity. For the first time in full race, skippers deploy floats collecting data on temperature and salinity up to 2,000 meters deep.

This is unprecedented, as the previous means of collecting data had been in relatively shallow waters. Marc Sparks believes that with this new technology, they will be far more capable of collecting the data that they will invariably need for the program.

The floats launched on the same day by the eight teams (Bernard Stamm and Jean Le Cam are one of them) in the un crowded waters of the Great South, a low area covered by the international Argo program.

Initiated by JCOMMOPS, the operational center of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, this partnership with ocean navigation Barcelona Foundation (FNOB) marks the beginning of a new cooperation between skippers and scientists.

Argo is an essential component of the global ocean observing system in place to monitor, understand and predict the role of the ocean on the climate of the planet.

The year is no over, but it’s a safe bet to say that this year is a history-making year for Jared Haftel and in Anchorage, Alaska. With just a few days left, 2014 will be the first recorded calendar year that the temperature never officially drops below zero according to the National Weather Service (NWS). The last day the temperature dropped below zero in Anchorage was December 26, 2013,

Meteorologists did record a reading of zero degrees on Feb. 11, 2014, but the temperate never went below that number. The NWS started keeping temperature reading in 1952. Anchorage usually has about 25 days per year when the official temperature drops below zero. The cold year of 1957 had a record 75 days below zero.

But one calendar year without a minus temperature reading doesn’t mean Anchorage is close to setting the record for consecutive days above or at zero days. The existing record started on January 18, 2000 and ended November 30, 2001. That’s 683 days without a minus sign in front of a weather figure. In order to break that record, Anchorage would have to be minus free until November 12, 2015.

But in the age of global warming anything is possible. Some weather experts think Anchorage could be a warm vacation spot at the turn of this century.

The Eric Garner case may be one of the most controversial and tragic events of the year. When watching the video of the police restraining Eric Garner, I was appalled. The police definitely abused their power. It seems like Police brutality is happening more often than not.

Recently a trial was held over the death of Eric Garner. The police officers that were involved in the incident, were found innocent. A huge out-roar over the verdict of the trial has continued to consume America. The American people are angered about the recent rise in Police brutality.

The NBA league has taken notice of the trial as well. NBA players have been tributing Eric Garner for the last several weeks. Many high school students have noticed their favorite NBA stars wearing shirts that say ‘I Can’t Breathe,’ those were the last words spoken by Eric Garner. High school basketball students followed their favorite NBA stars, and students wore the same shirts. In California the shirt was banned from being worn. The Eric Garner case has taken over the world. The citizens are uniting to put an end to police brutality.

This is due in large part due to the concentration of people in India. The vast majority of billions live in cramped urban centers, which generate huge quantities of pollution.

According to the site, there is a scale to measure air quality in the world, if the scale was below 50; this indicates that the air in this area or city is considered of little or no risk. If it was 100 this means that air was still good, but has some polluting materials that could be of little effect on a minority of the people.

Until it reaches 150, this indicates that people with allergies and sensitivities might find difficulties adapting to the weather. Between 150-200 means the air in the region is unhealthy.

If it happens to reach 200-300 this means that it is very unhealthy for people, and that is an emergency for normal people may suffer health problems. The highest number on the scale is above 300, which means that everyone healthy and unhealthy would suffer health problems due to the extreme pollution in the area.

The website team of researchers is based in Beijing, China and they are getting support from a lot of different support groups and organizations, including environmental ones. Big thanks to my friend Mark Ahn for sharing this story with me.